LOS ANGELES — Vocalist Bobby McFerrin had a breakout hit in 1988 with Don't Worry, Be Happy. Now the song has taken on a new life online, where YouTube is ripe with covers and parodies.

The singer, who has a new album out Tuesday — Spirityouall, a collection of spirituals he grew up with — met up with us recently while on tour and talked tech.

DON'T WORRY — IT'S AN ONLINE HIT

Beyond McFerrin's own 1988 classic video, which has over 17 million views on YouTube, there are several more million views of homegrown versions of his song. "I'm always fascinated by how many people know my hit song, especially the young people, playing their guitars and singing the song. These people are 15, 14, 13 years old."

BE HAPPY — IT'S A GAME, TOO

On his Bobbymcferrin.com website, the singer has a "Don't Worry" game that shows how technology was used to create the song. It's not just one singer crooning words, but actually six separate tracks of McFerrin singing lead, bass, harmony and rhythm. Users get to mix and match different tracks to create different versions of the song. Six tracks was considered bold when he did it in the 1980s. In more recent years, he's recorded songs with 40 separate vocal tracks.

DON'T ASK HIM TO SING 'DON'T WORRY'

He's happy for the attention, but he won't sing the song.

"I got tired of singing it. I sang it millions and trillions of times."

TOUR TECH

He brings an iPhone and MacBook laptop on tour to check e-mail and watch movies. (He likes classics like Now, Voyager.) "I wish I could be unplugged while touring, but I'm caught up in it."

SKYPE

He does look to technology to connect him back home in Philadelphia with his wife and daughter. "It's nice to see their face. I'm not good at talking on the phone without the visual, so Skype or (Apple) FaceTime is preferred."